The Super Villain project is a series of
portraits of political leaders spanning to 1990's & 2000's. I have always been fascinated
with the elastic nature of the political machine and the
impervious nature of a finely honed public image. The title
Super Villain plays with the idea that one man’s hero can be
another man’s villain.

To
keep the project manageable I have limited the portraits to
leaders who have held office within my own lifetime. Each
portrait is painted in oil on canvas and captures an image
representing an amalgamation of my own memorised
interpretation and a mass media interpretation of a particular
figure. This has allowed me to subtly play with the popular
perceptions of each personality in my composition. For
example: Reagan, the Teflon don with his glinting movie star
smile; Thatcher, tough, proud, formidable, hawk like;
Gorbachev, driven, single-minded, stone faced. Without
creating caricatures I have tried to subtly inject individual
characteristics that tell a little more than the official
portrait might do.

The
ground behind these figures has been painted white, paying
homage to the attempted blank slate that the new decision
maker takes on or creates and onto which they make their mark.
The white background also suggests the haze of disinformation
that surrounds many a public figure and the inference of other
forces working behind the scenes, like wool being gently
pulled over the eyes. The real story is on a strictly need to
know basis for us non-members. The series as a whole is a
reflection on the levels of transparency and the nature of a
finely crafted public image. As the project has progressed
many smaller narratives have emerged within it. Links are
automatically created within groupings of figures offering up
a bit of fun, much like a game of connect the dots with a
who’s who narrative.